


Remorse

by PaP



Category: Sonic X, Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Declarations Of Love, F/F, Falling In Love, First Love, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Love Confessions, Objectification, One can feel undeserving of love, Or incapable, Personal Growth, Self-Acceptance, Self-Discovery, Self-Reflection, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:26:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24857578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaP/pseuds/PaP
Summary: Pain can be an anchor, dragging in the sand.
Relationships: Rouge the Bat/Topaz (Sonic X)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	Remorse

“Are you okay?” Topaz asks softly, her face partway pressed to Rouge’s bosom, still enough space afforded to speak and to breathe and to stay awake after passionate hours spent exhausting each other.

The bat kisses the human on her head, then involuntarily whines.

Topaz stiffens and swiftly rises from their nest, protectively arching herself over Rouge, peering down upon her face.

“Oh, honey.”

“Rouge?”

“Sorry.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m, um… I’m having a moment, Topaz. I think.”

“Did I hurt you?”

“What? No, no! God, hon, no. Well. Yes.”

“Rouge…?”

“But not in that way. Not in… a bad way, Topaz.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I’m coming to terms with it, myself.”

“Did… I do something wrong?”

“Stop accusing yourself, for me, honey. You did something right,” the bat utters fondly, dragging a thumb along the human’s throat, anxiety racing like war drums. “You’re just right. You’re so very right. All the time. All for me.”

“Then… Why…?”

Rouge opens her legs wider, but Topaz pays no heed to the residual pool of heat.

“Something’s upset you.”

“No, honey.” A deep, husky sigh, unsteady, as aquamarine eyes flutter shut. “I’m not upset. Scared, sure. But not unhappy.”

Topaz waits, not soothed by Rouge’s playful touch, either, agonizing over the obvious strain.

“Actually.”

The human doesn’t flinch away when the bat gently grasps her by the neck.

“I’m happy,” Rouge confesses whilst in tears.

“You’re… happy?”

“I’m fucking happy, yeah.”

“You’re crying.”

“Shit, I know, right?”

“I don’t–”

“That’s just how fucking happy I am.”

Topaz is suddenly granted the rare gift of seeing the bat undone, not by pleasure, but by pain.

“I’m so fucking happy,” comes out in a giggling garble. “Topaz, you’re wonderful and you’re doing this, to me.”

The human doesn’t have any words to respond with. She doesn’t know what to do with her body.

“Beautiful and clever and strong and good.” The bat flings an arm over her eyes and buries herself in the bend, as if exhausted. “God.” She then groans. “I get it, now.”

Topaz simply hovers, hair ruffled and cheeks flushed, her neck clasped lightly within a powerful hand.

“I love you.”

Her shoulders collapse.

“And I’m terrified,” Rouge mumbles, pinned to the bed by an embrace, “of being this happy.”

The human nuzzles the bat.

“Because I’ve never felt anything like this, before, and I dunno what comes next. Do you?”

“No,” is the weak confession, in kind.

Then, a moment of silence.

“Do you…?”

“Yes,” comes the reply, assured. “I love you, too.”

“Ugh.” Rouge manages to get her arms around Topaz in return, laughing hoarsely into the other woman’s shoulder. “Thank god. I would’ve died if you said no to that one.”

“Tch.” The human embraces the bat’s trembling, encaging it, this trembling, in flesh and compassion. “I let you borrow my favourite jacket, remember? The one I got from college.”

“When you went through your belated rebellious stage. And you let me keep it.”

“That’s love, right there.”

“Hell, yeah. That, and everything else."

They tighten.

"You’re so…"

They crush.

"Fucking good to me, and…”

"You're good to me, too."

"Not good enough. Nowhere near good enough."

"We've still got time. But to me, you're perfect."

"See? This is what I mean!"

Topaz peels herself away just enough for her hands to quickly cup the Rouge’s strong jaw, fingers probing that plump and shuddering mouth in adoration.

“I guess I’m used to being… treated like a… Shit, I dunno, like a toy or a weapon, something. An asset. A something.”

The human kisses the bat’s nose, bringing their foreheads together.

“Something!” Rouge still hasn’t opened her eyes. “Anything, other than a fucking person. Toxic stuff, mostly, y’know?”

“I’m sorry.”

“You’re my hero. You don’t get to apologise.”

Topaz tries to murmur something reassuring, regardless, but the bat shakes her head, disregarding this comfort, as if wanting to chafe herself raw for the human.

“I’m not used to it. Being treated well. You treat me like a person. You’re my first.”

"That's so sad."

"Yeah."

Topaz is appalled by the notion that Rouge has suffered in this way, and yet her salvation is to suffer further, in a new way.

“You’re different. You treat me right. With you, I’m happy. And I get it, now, the thing that I’ve been missing, the thing that’s missed me, my whole life. It’s fucking madness.”

The human flinches when the bat sniffles pathetically, preciously.

“This is… what love is.”

“Rouge.”

* * *

“Topaz.”

She turns from the kettle, still boiling, and meets with her lover’s diamond eyes from across the modest kitchen.

“I want to stay.” Rouge is adorably unkempt. “With you.” She’s wearing an oversized tee-shirt she does not own. “Here.” She shrugs. “Hell, anywhere. I don’t mind where we end up.” She shrinks. “Just take me with you.”

The human leans on the countertop in a casual display, lithely muscular, smirking handsomely, hair still a mess from last night. There are visible marks of affection scattered all over her skin.

“Forever, if that’s okay.”

“You’re so sweet.”

“Mmph.” The bat tries to look tough, but her sincere, subtle smile gives her away. “I guess.”

“If you can tolerate me that long, sure, I’m happy to have you.”

Rouge perks.

Topaz hears the kettle click, announcing that the water is ready.

* * *

“Finally.”

“Finally?”

Shadow sips his beer.

“Fucking finally?” Rouge glares at him, viciously jabbing her stub of a cigarette into the belly of the ashtray, extinguishing it. “You knew?”

“Yes.”

“We knew,” Omega corrects in his rumbling drone, flinching when the bat turns her glare upon him.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

The hulking robot raises his gleaming claws in a diplomatic gesture, lenses flickering, conspicuously glancing at the hedgehog for backup.

“We thought it best that you figure it out for yourself. We knew you would, eventually.”

“You pair of assholes.”

“We would have only demeaned the experience, had we granted you that convenience.”

“Could’ve saved me some grief, too!”

“Would that have been a fair exchange?”

Rouge deflates.

“It aggrieved us, also,” Omega admits in his robotically masculine way. “But we wanted you to grow. As the meatbags do. You are not perfect.”

Shadow graciously accepts this imperfection, even as the Ultimate Lifeform. “Mmhm.”

“Unlike me.”

“Thank you, Omega,” the hedgehog then says, a little testily.

In the pause that follows, the robot lowers his claws, whirring, relieved that the situation has been diffused.

“Was I obvious?”

“Obviously in love, yes.”

“Affirmative.”

“And it took me so long to realise."

"You are quite obtuse, sometimes."

"Affirmative."

"Shuddup. Anyway. Took me so long to understand those warm, fuzzy… fucking feelings. Unique, simply because of her.”

“I’m proud of you,” Shadow says, companionably nudging his shoe against Rouge’s knee from under the outdoor table.

Omega looms, gleaming claws flexing at his sides, as if in reflexive eagerness. “Affirmative.” He ignores the staring people, as he is certainly a magnificent oddity.

The bat doesn’t respond, however.

“We had good intentions.”

“I see that, now.”

The hedgehog and the robot look to each other.

“And I’m… glad, actually, that you didn’t intervene for me.”

Shadow refrains from smiling.

Omega is completely unfazed by the attractive woman attempting to capture his shoulder beside her face in a selfie, thus exaggeratedly posing alongside him.

“I guess I have grown. I came to the conclusion at my own fucked up pace and it wasn’t too late for us, bless her.” Rouge eases herself back in her chair, turning her gaze aside. "And she feels the same way. But I'm so dumb, I thought she just liked me a whole lot. Like, I'm cute and funny, so."

"Oh, you."

"Heh. Oh, me."

**Author's Note:**

> I can't remember when I last had a good dream.


End file.
